KHANKENDI, Azerbaijan, July 19. We have already informed the Russian side that we are preparing a case to apply to the international judicial system, said President Ilham Aliyev during his speech at the 3rd Shusha Global Media Forum, referring to the AZAL aircraft that was shot down in December of last year, Trend reports.
"There were two attacks on the plane. Can you imagine — a Ukrainian drone comes, targets an Azerbaijani plane, hits it, falls down, and then comes back again? That’s a story for kindergarten. We know what happened. Plus, Russian airspace was not shut down. It was shut down several minutes after the plane was hit. That is also the responsibility of those who failed to announce the “KOVER” operation to close the airspace. All of that is as clear as today’s sky. But for seven months, we’ve had no answer. Our Prosecutor General regularly sends letters to the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee. All the letters get the same response: “The investigation continues.” So, we will wait until the investigation ends. But I think it is counterproductive to behave this way. It will not lead us to forget. We will not forget. We are now preparing — and have informed the Russian side — that we are preparing a case to apply to the international judicial system. We know this may take time. The Malaysian Boeing case took more than 10 years. So, we will wait for 10 years. But justice must be achieved. And unfortunately, the current state of this issue is not helpful for bilateral relations between Russia and Azerbaijan," said President Ilham Aliyev.